The Velocity of Autumn Tickets

The Velocity of Autumn is Eric Coble's new dark comedy produced by Washington-based Arena Stage Theater. Directed by Molly Smith, the show stars powerhouse duo, Academy Award-winner Estelle Parsons and Tony-winner Stephen Spinella. The ninety-minute comedy is holding a limited engagement at Broadway's Booth Theatre in New York, making The Velocity of Autumn tickets a sought-after treat among the city's theatergoers.

The story centers on seventy-nine year old Alexandra, living alone in her simple Brooklyn brownstone that she has loaded with enough explosives to bring down most of the block. The old woman is at odds with her family over how to spend the last few years of her life, when her long-absent son Christopher walks in as the most unlikely mediator. Like his mother, Chris is also a painter and has always been the child his mother felt closest to. Saving his mother's life as well as his own, is all on him. This great American play will be the Broadway debut of director Molly Smith and playwright Eric Coble.

The world premiere of The Velocity of Autumn was held in April 2011 at Idaho's Boise Contemporary Theatre. This was followed by sold-out performances in Cleveland at the Beck Center of the Arts in April 2012. In September 2013, Arena Stage production debuted in Washington at Kreeger Theater with Edgar Dobie as executive producer and Molly Smith as director. This production too had a sold-out run till October and received much critical acclaim. 

The show is being produced yet again by Arena Stage which is a non-profit resident theater, celebrating its sixty-fourth season. The company is dedicated to American theater and was a pioneer of Regional Theater Movement in the fifties.

Eric Coble, the mastermind behind The Velocity of Autumn, has explored the character of Alexandra through various stages in her life through other plays. The writer essentially questions the concept of roots in one's lifespan. He began his exploration with A Girl's Guide to Coffee, in which Alex is in her twenties with no real responsibilities, no ties to anyone, completely uncommitted and free. Her lack of commitment urges her to put her roots down in the face of a body and family. We then visit her in her forties in Stranded on Earth. Here, she is seen trying to come to grips with the fact that her life's greatest highs and deepest lows have come from motherhood, aging parents, her career and more. She basically comes to realizes that her happiest and worst moments resulted from her gender-bag. In The Velocity of Autumn, Coble brings her before us as an old lady at eighty who is desperately clinging to the world she created around her and committed to, even when her own body and family are pushing her to let go.

 The play truly examines the meaning of life and family, as well as an individual's worth within that dynamic. The comedy is quite poetic in its themes and the questions that it raises, and has received wonderful reviews from all quarters. The New York Times has described it as a 'deliciously funny' play with 'wonderful wit and grit' as portrayed by the talented Estelle Parsons. Broadway World reviews it as 'wonderfully touching and wickedly funny' while praising Molly Smith for her directorial work. The Washington Post was much impressed by the two-actor lineup describing what it is like to be 'in the presence of top rank actors under Smith's unassailable direction'.

Among its many acclaimed elements, the play has turned out a winner because of Parson's extraordinary talent for playing an unrelentingly detached and unsentimental character. The Baltimore Sun explains this by quoting that 'Parsons soars', bringing the audience more than enough layers and surprises to create such a powerful theatrical experience.

One of the most intense instruments of raising questions about life and society is the strategic use of comedy and this play does exactly that. This juxtaposition of laughter and tears is not to be missed so grab The Velocity of Autumn tickets before they are all hogged.